Locked Out as Sole Global Admin

Question

Locked Out as Sole Global Admin

Carol 20

I'm the sole global admin of my Office 365 account, and I lost my password. When I try to recover my password, it asks me first to validate using my cellphone. I passed that step successfully. But then, it asks me to validate using Authenticator, which I never set up before.

I read that I can use the tenant lockout scenario. Please, help. I have access to my phone, and I can confirm my ownership using DNS settings.

Carol 20 Reputation points

2025-10-02T01:30:31.52+00:00

@Anonymous Ping
Raja Pothuraju 47,840 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2025-10-02T14:13:45.73+00:00
Hello Carol,

To proceed, I will need a few details from you. As this information contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII), please share the following details via private message:

Contact phone number (add +Country code)

Contact email address

Global admin email address (affected account)

Tenant ID or Domain Name

Country

TimeZone

Please send me the detail via private message.

Answer accepted by question author

0 additional answers

Your answer

Carol 20 Reputation points

2025-10-02T01:30:31.52+00:00

@Anonymous Ping
Raja Pothuraju 47,840 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2025-10-02T14:13:45.73+00:00

Hello Carol,

To proceed, I will need a few details from you. As this information contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII), please share the following details via private message:

Contact phone number (add +Country code)

Contact email address

Global admin email address (affected account)

Tenant ID or Domain Name

Country

TimeZone

Please send me the detail via private message.

Answer 1

Raja Pothuraju 47,840 Microsoft Employee Moderator

Hello Carol,

The issue pertains to a tenant lockout, where no other global admin in the tenant has the necessary permissions to reset password.

To resolve this, we have engaged our Data Protection team through a support ticket. They will reach out to you via email or phone to help restore access to the tenant and assist in resolving the issue.

Once the issue has been resolved by our support team, please feel free to revisit and kindly click "Accept Answer," as this will be helpful to other community members facing similar issues.

0 comments